John French

John French (28 September 1852-22 May 1925) was a British field marshal who was a veteran of the Boer War and World War I. He was also famous for crushing the Irish Easter Rising of 1916.

Biography
A distinguished cavalry officer during the Boer War, Sir John French became commander of the BEF in August 1914. Initially overly optimistic, after the battle of Mons, he despaired over heavy losses and enforced retreat.

Out of Depth
French failed to cooperate effectively with the French generals or with his own subordinates. Heavy pressure from the war secretary, Kitchener, made him commit British troops to the crucial first Battle of the Marne in September, when he would rather have withdrawn for recuperation. During the trench warfare of spring 1915, French publicly blamed failure at Neuve Chapelle on a shortage of shells, precipitating a political crisis in Britain. He could not, however, avoid responsibility at Loos in September, when his failure to commit reserves quickly after a successful initial attack led to disaster. Replaced by Haig in December, French was relegated to the home front, overseeing the suppression of the Irish Nationalist Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.